Yes, yes, yes. Father, I am grateful. I bless your name. I'm grateful that you hear my voice. I'm grateful that you love me. I'm grateful that you have blessed me with family and friends, and this church and the freedom to gather and to learn more about you. Lord, we exalt your name. We hallow your name. We revere your name, and we pray that it will be hallowed to the ends of the earth. I know that there are some of us trying to figure this out now. Lord, speak to them. Speak to all of us Holy Spirit, land in our rooms. Work through us. Now. Help us to, to, to be guided and nudged and challenged, and inspired, and encouraged and comforted by you and your presence. We ask all of this now, in the name of Jesus, my savior, our king. Amen. All right, why don't you guys have a seat? Why don't you guys take off and come back later? The question is this, how much has to happen for you to say thank you? Like what's it take for you to say thank you? What's it take for you to, to, to say out loud, to acknowledge, to, to admit that you are well blessed? You see, I think it's a hallmark feature of being a Christian. And I just prayed a second ago acknowledging, and I, I know some of you aren't there yet. I know some of you're trying to figure out what this means to follow Jesus. I know that some of you grew up hearing that it was more about ritual and religious behavior, and now we're talking about grace and all these other things, and you're trying to kind of put it together. Some of you are, are even like, you're, you're not even there yet. You're still wondering, is there a God? What is all of this? I want you to know you're in a good place. You're in the right place, I think, I think you're in a safe place where you can begin to figure out these truths and how they apply to you. I just want you to know whether you're here, whether you're joining us online, you're at one of the sites at Grants Trail at Fenton Mid Rivers. I just want you to know what a relief settles in on you. When you realize you can rest in him. Like Jesus is enough. The cross is enough. You don't have to wonder anymore if you've done enough or if you're good enough, or if you've measured up enough to enjoy this life with God. That stretches into eternity. When you begin to understand the gift of grace, it, it just rests on you and you realize you are blessed. So there's a, a, a fellow by the name of Paul. He's a first century missionary. He has a really radical conversion story that many of us are familiar with. He ends up crisscrossing the Roman Empire to plant churches because he's gonna tell the world how much Jesus matters and this good news that is for all of humanity. And as he's doing this, there are times and occasions when he reaches back to some of these churches that he's planted and some of those letters, some of that, uh, communication is so inspired. It's so God soaked that early on, people began to realize, no, these are different. And they found their way. These letters into our New Testament. Now, we're gonna bump into a few of them this week, like right now. But I want you to know that Paul realizes from the get go that he's blessed, one of these letters is to a, uh, a church that's in a place called Ephesus. It's on the west coast of Turkey. And, and Paul like just says, outright at the beginning of this letter, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us. Now, if you, if, if you keep reading, you will see that he can't stop himself. Like there are in, in the English translations, there are periods, but in the Greek, not so much. It is a run on sentence. Your English teacher from high school would have a heyday marking this sentence up. 'cause it just doesn't stop. In fact, there are some scholars who say, this might be one of the longest sentences in ancient literature that was written in Greek. Paul can't help himself. He just keeps sharing how he is blessed through Jesus. This is a sign of spiritual health. It's a sign of life. I mean, what's the alternative? Look, what's the alternative to a grateful heart? Well, obviously an ungrateful heart, but what does that look like? It's somebody who's chronically discontent. Uh, it's, it's maybe, maybe complaining, maybe a little judgy like you ever noticed sometimes the, like, we, we, we become the, uh, we, we get really good at the clever put down. And when I say the clever put down, it's not a direct put down, it's just a little side jab. Like, you're in a meeting, you're in a group, you're with the family, you're with friends, and somebody's really celebrating something going on and whew, I mean, everybody's excited for them, excited for them. And you just put a little, just a little just 'cause Well, why? Well, I've been in that territory, have you? Why? Why? Because we're jealous. Because we're afraid they're getting out ahead of us. And because we don't want them to get like too excited about, you know, this thing. And it's like, yeah, it's just not a good way to live guys. We lose, we lose a sense of awe when it comes to who God is and what he's doing in our lives and the purpose he has for our lives. And we, we lose the sense of awe with the friends that we have. There's a better way to live. And the good news is that like it gets proven time and time again. Like I could even quote to you, uh, scientific studies that have shown that people who practice gratitude, people who are quite literally, they are practicing gratitude. Like they're, they're doing it on a regular basis. They have lower levels of stress, they sleep better. They report being more connected to their friends. They have a better sense of kind of purpose and where they're heading in life, they're more likely to do healthy things. I mean, it's a good thing to be grateful. No wonder the Bible says again and again, give thanks, give thanks, give thanks. It's as if, I mean, this shouldn't shock us, right? It's good for us. And the one who created us knew that God does know how things work, okay? And he's saying, y'all gotta, y'all gotta be like, you should figure this out. But let's go on ahead and admit this me just telling you, Hey, you gotta be thankful isn't really gonna help much. Is it? Like if you, if like, if that were the message today of you just gotta be grateful people just gr and bear it. Be grateful. Let's stand for closing prayer. Good luck Thursday. That doesn't help, does it? No. I mean, you can't flip a switch and go from being like Major von grumpy to Captain gratitude reporting for duties. Uh, it doesn't work that way. But here's the good news. You can get better at it. No, you really can. I want to go back to another letter. This is same guy Paul. He's writing to a church that he's been with through thick and through thin. And right now he is in it, man. I mean, he's chained to a Roman guard. Like he's, he's awaiting trial, which could sentence him to an execution. And these famous words, I have learned to be content. Whatever the circumstances, I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. And Paul says, I've learned how to be content. A couple of things here. That word content is a really powerful word. It doesn't mean he's given up. Sometimes some of us are like, yeah, you know, you can't, you can't be content because then, you know, life passes you by and your competitors win. That's not what the word means here. When you see this word, I've learned to be content. It isn't Paul saying, you know what? I've learned to just kinda give up. Like I don't have any passion. I've just learned and not expect much joy in my life. I'm not really gonna accomplish my, I'm okay with cold oatmeal. It's okay. That's not what it means. That's not the biblical word for content. The word there is a powerful word. It is, it's someone who has agency. It's someone who has control of their life. It's someone who is consciously choosing and saying, you know, I'm going, I'm, I'm going down this path. I am choosing to live a, a more grateful life. I'm gonna cultivate this gratitude in my life. I'm gonna cultivate this, this sense of contentment in my life. I have learned, Paul says, when I had a lot and when I had a little, and either way it is liberating, it is freeing for me. You see, when you get down this path, you begin to realize that life is a gift and the people around you are gifts and you begin to trust God more. You see, there are a, a, a variety of of authors that I'm gonna kind of tap into today. And this is one of 'em. I I love this quote, uh, from Brennan Manning. He says, the person with an abiding spirit of gratitude is the one who trusts God. So you get to a place where you learn, no, God can be trusted through thick and thin, high, low God can be trusted. And I will tell you, if you can learn how to be content, you're just a half step away from being grateful. I mean, they're connected, aren't they? So we learn what this is like. And here you go, a little more science for you. Like your brain responds to this. Like your brain literally responds to this. There's a, there's a neuroscientist out at UCLA, uh, another guy that I was just kind of trying to, to learn from through all of this. And he says, when it comes to gratitude, when you practice it regularly, when you figure out what that is, some people keep gratitude journals. Some people just make sure that every time they are praying, they are noticing things. There are ways that you can begin to practice gratitude. But he says, when you do this, the neurons in a very strategic part of your brain. Okay? So this is the lateral dorsal striatum, okay? You know, it's a part of the basal ganglia. I know you know where we are. But this very strategic part of the brain, this is where, by the way, we think habits are formed. It's crazy how much we're learning about brain function. This is where habits kind of get formed. He says in, in, if you do this, the neurons in that area begin to kind of, they begin to, to, to thicken and to kind of like come together and to work together. He said, really, they become more efficient. So that if you will practice gratitude, get this, he says, you get to a place where it simply takes less effort to be grateful. Your brain will work along with you. And that means you and I can learn how to be more grateful. We can start habits like today that could begin to take us through the, through Thanksgiving and then into the, the Christmas season and then into 2025. Like we could start that today. Some of you are going to gather around tables on Thursday. Now again, I it may not be as big as this table, okay? Unless you live at Hogwarts. But if you, if if you, if you are, are, are, are gathering around a table, I don't want us to just see this as a thing that we do like before we eat on Thursday. God, may this please become a habit for us in the coming days. Amen? So here's the thing. I'm, I've kind of combed through a whole bunch of stuff. Some experts in science authors, uh, went back to a message of, I remember a guy said some things 25 years ago that it was like, oh yeah, no, that, that helped all of these things from, uh, from, from a pastor John Ortberg, from authors like Manning and Henry Nowan, to my friend Scott Sas, to all of these people. I've kind of pulled all of this together. And, and if it doesn't make sense, blame me. Don't blame them. Okay? But here it is, we're gonna go through four things. And this is one of those messages that's kind of bullet point. Like, you know, I know some of you love that, and you're like, well, this is your day. Here you go. Give thanks. Right? So, so, so here it is. Here's the first thing. Here's the first thing. We can do this. Be grateful for imperfect gifts. That's the first thing to write down. Be grateful for imperfect gifts. How many of you, each of our sites, how many of you are sitting next to someone you know? Just raise your hand. Come on, raise it high. You are sitting next to an imperfect gift. Wait a second, they are too. You see, Ecclesiastes is a book in the Old Testament, a book of wisdom, and it says, uh, it, it says, it is better to be satisfied with what you have than to always be wanting more. Now, again, this doesn't mean that you just give up. This isn't for those of you who are saying, I don't wanna lose my edge out there, I gotta, I gotta, this isn't that, think of it this way. If you learn how to be grateful, like right now with the imperfections of these gifts, then you can give thanks. Now you don't have to wait. See if you wait until your finances are perfectly in order. Like if you wait until all of the debt is retired. If you wait until, uh, un, un until everything lines up in your like relational world until you're dating, if you wait, un, un, un until your spouse just really is perfect. If, if, if you're waiting until the headlines line up and the world is doing exactly what you think it should, if you're waiting until like your GPA or your BMI you pick is perfect, I think you're gonna be waiting a while. If you're waiting to give thanks until all of this lines up, you're gonna parents out there, can I just say this to you? If you're waiting until your kids get along perfectly and clean their rooms perfectly before you give thanks, you're gonna be waiting a while. If you're waiting until everybody in your family behaves this thanksgiving before you, some of you're gonna sit around a table on Thursday and go, there is no way I share DNA with these people. But if you're gonna wait until everybody gets along perfectly before you give thanks, you are waiting for a while. My point is, God gives us imperfect gifts. I'm not saying that we don't keep trying, we don't keep moving, we don't keep addressing things. I'm saying along the way, in this imperfect not yet healed world, God is saying, look at what I've given you and get this. He wants us to enjoy those gifts, but we seem to have forgotten how. And I'll give you one reason why. The world, the world is sending a different message to you. The world is trying to create and to stir up a discontent in you. Now, we talk about this when it comes to advent conspiracy and when it comes to this urge to overspend and put ourselves in debt, and we have to push against that. But I'm telling you, there are messages all around you that are intended to stir up discontent. Remember last week, Tim gave us a, in the middle of a message that really we all, I mean, it was an awesome message that we all needed to hear. In the middle of that message, he said, beware of quotes on the internet. Do you remember that? And then he showed a picture of Abraham Lincoln and we all kinda laughed. I laughed out loud. 'cause everybody attributes things to famous people 'cause they think it makes it sound better. This next quote is an example of that. It's a great quote. And everybody from podcasters to influencers, to professors, to authors to consultants, they all attribute this to Teddy Roosevelt. 'cause it just sounds cooler. But I did the deep dive on this. There is absolutely no indication that Teddy Roosevelt ever said this. Doesn't mean it isn't true though. Here's the quote, comparison is the thief of joy. You think about that for a second. You're clicking along pretty good. Oh, I like what's going on in my life. This is God, thank you very. And then all of a sudden, oh wow, look at what they've got. Look at what he's doing. And before you know it, joy just kinda leaves, right? Listen to me. For some of us, it it's like this. We, we, we, we, we, we get on one of these and we start to look at an over filtered, hyper engineered, not even real way too perfect life or story that we come across. And we look at this and then we compare it with our very unfiltered, very real, not very engineered, a little bit of a mess life. And go, oh man, like something was going on in your life that was actually good news and, and, and, and you missed it. Like, because of this, I'm not saying our phones are wrong, I'm not saying that that's, this is bad. I'm just saying we've gotta be savvy when people are trying to create discontent and you like pay attention. My friend Scott Sas puts it the other way. He kind of flips it and he says, you know, like envy, like nobody admits that they are envious of somebody else. It's, it's too embarrassing. But we all get sucked into it. It's envy, right? It's just like, oh man, you know what Scott says is the antidote to envy. He says, giving thanks. Here's the way he says it. Thanksgiving is the envy killer. If you ever find that you're kind of getting churned up on something and going, how come I don't, how come I don't practice gratitude and watch it begin to dismantle the envy? Which leads us to the next point. You gotta pay attention to the gifts that are right in front of you. Like God has plopped these things right in front of us and we miss them. Like there are times that we're so busy or we're obsessed with something. Maybe we're addicted to something. Maybe it's, it's all about work. It's all about, uh, it's, it's all about, uh, you know, that next thing that's happening at school, it's all about that big project. It's all about, uh, we could be addicted to gossip, to tv, to politics, to sports, to movies, to any number of things. And before you know it, we're not really paying attention to the gifts that are right in front of us. God just keeps giving us these gifts and it's like, no, we're just moving past them. There's a, a, uh, in Salzburg, Austria, a few years ago, there was a, a whole, uh, like a, a whole like public safety initiative that happened. People were being injured by cars and by cyclists and by mopeds. And the reason they were being injured was because they were so obsessed with their phones that they kept stepping out into traffic. What the sign, so these are like padded things that are around the lampposts, I guess, so that if you bump into a lamppost, you're protected. I don't know. But on the sign it says, is the next car that you step in front of as well, padded as this because people were getting hurt. And what they're really saying is, Hey, can you just look up and pay attention? 'cause sometimes we're not noticing what is in front of us. My point to you and I is that you and I should notice what's in front of us. I'm not against these, I use it all the time. I'm just saying let's look up and look around and see that God has blessed us. Do you have any idea what the gift of life is? Look, when you woke up today and you took air into your lungs, do you understand the miracle involved? The psalm almost puts it like this really famous verse, but it's, I will praise you. Why? 'cause I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. God, you did all of this for me. I mean, marvelous are your works. I mean, when I begin to consider this, that my soul knows, and my soul knows this very well, you're, you're like a miracle. And sometimes we have to just stop and go, God, you did this. Maybe it's, maybe it's, it's, it's, it's a friend. Maybe it's somebody who's walked with you through really tough stuff. Maybe it's a blessing that that is just happening right before your eyes when it's happening at work and everything's coming together. You've been working really hard and it's like, wow, it's all landing. Maybe it's your health. Maybe you got a good report back from the doctor. Maybe it turns out the test was negative. Maybe God's put someone in your life and y'all are falling in love. Like right now, it's happening real time. Are you thanking God for these beautiful gifts that are in front of you? You see, sometimes it can be really small things, but it's like somebody just did something or, and you're just always there and you always, you're just so dependable. And I walk right past it. Why? Well, 'cause I'm busy. 'cause I got stuff I gotta do. 'cause man, I got a whole agenda of really important things and you know, I will, I'll, I'll thank you and I'll thank God when later, later, I'll get to it later. You know what? Everything slows down, settles down. I'll come back and I'll thank you and I'll thank God. Except we never do right? See, what I'm asking us to do now is to stop and to slow down. Some of us are so convinced that we're hard charging and that we're getting stuff done and that we gotta keep moving fast. When in reality, part of what God is saying is, will you just stop for a minute and notice what I've given you just for a minute? So let's do it, shall we? I want you to hang out with some people around you. Hopefully by now we've stirred this one up a little bit. What are some of the ways that God has blessed you? Now here's what we're gonna do. If you're at Chesterfield, you're gonna use the app to let us know. Pastors come on up. We've got some scribes here that are gonna help us with this. Uh, so like Chesterfield, you're gonna get your answers to, to this person on the app sites. You have pastors that are walking around the rooms right now. So you're gonna talk to each other and you're gonna let your pastor know because they're gonna use the technology that we're not afraid of. And they're gonna text these people up here. So how has God bless you? And we're gonna track it from each site. So y'all go ahead, talk to each other. All right? All right. This is where it gets fun. This is where it's gonna get fun these last few minutes. All right, so here's the thing. I hope that you guys are actually taking this seriously and letting it stir up a little bit. Because we're not just gonna give lip service to something that is good for our souls. I dunno what it was for you. Maybe it was a miracle of healing. Maybe it is something that's going on at work. Maybe it is something that's happening. Like, do you remember the last time you held that little human that was made in the image of God Almighty? Do you remember when you fell in love? Do you remember when you first met that person? Do you remember when they showed up and nobody else did? Those are moments that we, we, we remember and we know that God has blessed us. But I'm gonna tell you what, when you take the time to notice that it will lead you to the next thing. And here it is, you open your heart to worship. Giving thanks is always gonna lead to worship in the scriptures, always, always, always, it leads to worship. Now, we're in the Old Testament, Psalm 1 0 3. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Bless the Lord, bless, bless the Lord. In the Hebrew tradition, you wouldn't start a prayer without blessing God. You would begin by thanking God and by blessing him, this is what you do. In fact, even to this day, Orthodox Jewish people will have hundreds of, like, they'll have so many different blessings that are available to them. And what you did was you would start by blessing God in the name of God. Now, you've heard some of this before recently. Blessed are you Lord God, king of the universe. And then you would thank God for something specific that just happened. Oftentimes it's something like really small, it's just something that you're just grateful for you. Thank God you bless him. You thank him because you woke up. You thank God because you opened your eyes and you could see you thank God. True, true, true there In, in the Hebrew tradition, there is a blessing for when you wake up and you use the facilities and the plumbing works. I mean, you're plumbing, not the house's, plumbing. There's a blessing for that. When was the last time you praised and blessed God? 'cause your body is still kind of on a good day, mostly working. How come when, when we can walk, when we can see, when we can hear you bless God, so many different little thanksgivings. You blessed God for, uh, for, for, for the taste of baked bread. You bless God after a meal. You bless God when you smell fresh fruit. Now we're about out of that season. But when you smell fresh strawberries in season, ooh, when you smell a freshly cut lime or a lemon, you bless God when you saw a rainbow. You bless God when you see majestic tall mountains, you bless God when you, uh, hear thunder, you blessed God. When you see lightning crackle across the sky. You blessed God when good news comes your way. You bless God when bad news comes your way. You bless God. Well, what does that sound like? You, God, I am so grateful that you are still God, that you're gonna sustain me through this 'cause I need all of you. Now, how does David put it? Bless the Lord, all my soul and all that is within me. That song that we sang just a minute ago that I, I just love that song these days that because it's us talking to, it's like we're, we're, we're given our soul instruction. It's just like, David, come on my soul. Don't you get shy on me. Remember that one? I mean, the room just filled with that, with that song. That's what David is saying here. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, all that is within me. Don't forget his benefits. So we're counting the blessings. But all that is within me. If I'm gonna tell you the truth, sometimes all that's within me is a it, it gets messy in there. Bless the Lord. All that is within me who you see, some of us have gotten out of rhythm with this things. Some of us have, have given into kind of a cynical sort of a edge. Some of us, like we can't imagine thanking God these days. And if I start talking about Christmas, you can't even think of Christmas. You're not sure how you're gonna make it through Thanksgiving. 'cause the storm hit, right? I know what that's like when you get to Thanksgiving and you're like, I don't think I got anything to, how am I thanking God? November 23rd, 2017, it's been seven years. November 20 third's a kind of a big day in my family. 'cause it reminds me of when God blessed the world and blessed me with the love of my life. I've always loved November 23rd. But on November 23rd, seven years ago, I stood by his bed and watched my dad enter into eternity. And I remember that Thanksgiving looking at everybody and going, man, this is just gonna be different. How do you give thanks all that is within me. Now, how do you do that? Let me tell you, you're not giving thanks for the storm. You're not giving thanks for that loss that just knocked your legs out from under you. You're giving thanks for the God who is faithful. You're giving thanks for the God who says, I've got you. I'm with you and I'll even see you through this. That's what we give thanks for in that moment. So here's what I'm gonna ask us to do. Now, It's A little bit of a risk, but would you all just bow your heads, each of our rooms just bow your heads. Pastors, would you come out here so that people can see you? And and the thing is, the rooms are private. Now, if you're going through a season right now and you're saying, yeah, that's me. I'm in the middle of the storm and everybody around me is celebrating the most wonderful time of the year, I, we wanna pray for you. Would you make eye contact with us? Or maybe, maybe even just raise your hand so that we can see you at, at each of our sites, pastors, would you just stand at the sites and, and just, just turn around and start praying for your folks? Yep. I see, I see y'all. You all praying for these people. You know, there's even a blessing for the God who bears our burdens. It's lifted straight from Psalm 68 bar. Blessed Be the Lord who daily bears our burdens. The God who is our Savior. There's some translations that say, blessed be the God who daily carries us in his arms. Father, we're asking now that you do just that, that you would carry people that you'd, that you'd pick up the load. Lord, we don't want 'em to go through this alone. I pray that you'll give us wisdom to know how to come alongside. And Lord, give them the courage and the wherewithal to say, Hey, I don't wanna do this alone. Father, right now we're asking for you to carry the burden. And we bless you. I bless you because I have been there and I know that you come through and I know that, I know that I know that you are faithful. So God, here in this moment, even now, we're grateful. We're grateful that you are who you are and we need you to come through big time for these folks. Amen. Do you, y'all have any idea how loved you are? I don't know if you were here a couple of weeks ago or not, but I explained that phrase that traces back to scripture, the apple of your eye. Anybody remember that? It's like, it's a phrase where like, if somebody, if you cherish them, you, you're the apple of my eye. I'm the apple of her eye. It's that kind of a thing, right? You say that about your kids, you're the apple of my eye. We don't say it very much, but it goes back to scripture, except in the scripture, the Hebrew idiom is different. The idiom there, really what it means if you translate it is the little man or woman that is in the reflection like of, of the pupil of an eye. So the whole point here is you get so close to someone, so close to them, and they are watching over you so carefully that you can actually see your reflection in their eye. You're the apple of their eye. And that's a really cool thing. And we should celebrate that, that people love us and cherish us that way. But I need y'all to know this. You are the apple of god's eye. That may be too, uh, squishy for some of you. But I'm telling you, you are the beloved. You are that loved by the God of the universe, and he's watching over you. David said at one point when he was going through it, he said, God, please, may I be the apple of your eye. And God came through you. See, if we can begin to understand that, then we worship and we worship differently. And I don't want you to leave here without knowing that you are the beloved. Which leads us to the last thing we're gonna just express. We're gratitude, openly, boldly right now here at the end. So hang on here we go from the sites, from Chesterfield. I just want to see now, just so everybody knows, it's Chesterfield, Fenton, mid Rivers and Grants Trail. So we're doing it in order. Okay? So David, hold it up higher there. Uh, God bless me with an amazing roommate, man, that my son survived cancer four times. Whew, God gave me a second chance. Youth crossing, friends and leaders. I reconciled with my friend. Financial stability, my grandkids love. Kids crossing. Come on, survive. Brain cancer and a coma. Blessed with a wife and good health. My small group making the volleyball team. Come on. Congratulations for reliable vehicles, amazing opportunities. The job I love provision. Okay, we could keep going. You getting the point here? We could go on and on and on. And we barely got started. So here's what we're gonna do. Now we are going to express gratitude boldly. We do this to God and we do this to each other. Paul, in, in, in one of those letters says, every time I think of you, I just, I thank God I tell some folks at a staff luncheon this week. I, I, I get what he's saying there when he says, every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God that, that I feel that way. I'm blessed to be a part of this church. I'm blessed to be a part of this thing with you guys. I'm so grateful. And sometimes the words that you say to me or to my family are like, it's just so spot on, perfectly timed, and it lands in my heart. I need that. And you do too. And get this. So does that imperfect gift sitting next to you. And so do your friends and your mentors and your teachers and your coaches and a neighbor, your parents. I want your parents, they didn't do a perfect job, but for some of you, maybe it's time to just reach out or it's time to say, Hey, before we get together on Thursday, I just want you to know how grateful I am for you. While there's still time, express that gratitude. Here's what we're gonna do. Now we're going to express gratitude and we're gonna do it boldly. And some of you are going to feel the urge. Like right now, that screaming voice in your head is saying run. You'll get your chance in just a second. And I want you to know if this is too much, if this is too intense, if this is too intimidating, if this is too big a challenge, if this is too deep, if this is just too, you don't have to do it. We get it. We get it. But I would like to suggest that it might just be too good for you to not jump in. So here's what's gonna happen in just a second. You're gonna listen to a part of a song and it's gonna remind you that you are the beloved. And then at that point, at each of our sites, you're gonna then come to the front of, of, of, of that building that room. And you're going to express gratitude to God in a bold, open way. You see, we've been doing it all weekend long and we've got all of these cards up here, and we've got letters and, and, and, and at some places, I think it's butcher paper. We're just gonna be writing down boldly and openly. This is what I thank God for and we're gonna leave it here. You see, our goal is to not have a table filled with leftovers. At the end of the day, our goal is to have rooms and tables that are filled with gratitude. 'cause I think that's what we need. So that's, that's really the first step. We're gonna, we're gonna wait a second. We're gonna take a breath. You're gonna muster your courage. We're gonna do this together like we did a couple of weeks ago. It's gonna be messy, it's gonna be great. And then you're gonna come up here and express gratitude. The second part of this though, has to do with a blessing. Now, Henry now says that there in his book, the Life of the Beloved, he says, there's a connection between blessing and understanding that you are the beloved. Henry was a, a, a Catholic priest, a professor at Harvard, and, uh, a noted author. And at some point in his career, he decides to step off of the fast track. He resigns from Harvard and he moves to Toronto to be the pastor, to care for a small community of adults with developmental disabilities. So he cares for them and the staff that cares for them. And that's, that's what Henry does, does. That's what he did. But in his book, he, he talked about a moment when they were getting ready to gather for the, for a, a little prayer service. And there's only about 30 of 'em that are gonna be there. And one of the residents, a woman named Janet, comes up to him and says, Henry, I need a blessing. And he admits in the book, he said, I just kind of did the automatic, I didn't think about it. I just traced the sign of the cross on her and said, you are blessed. And she goes, no, that doesn't work. I need a real blessing. And he knew, just by the way she was saying it, he's gonna have to think about this. And so he said, okay, after the service, I would like to bless you. And so now in the back of his mind, he's going, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but she's expecting something special. Well, uh, she didn't leave him in doubt of what she was expecting because at the end of the service, he says, now Janet has asked for a special blessing. And as soon as he mentions her name, she gets up and comes running down, puts her face in the folds of his white robe, wraps her arms around him, and he realized this better be good. And so in that moment, I'm sure inspired by the spirit of God, he says, Janet, you are the beloved daughter of God. He loves you. And I know you have highs and lows, and I know you are going through a tough time right now. But never forget, never forget that you are the beloved. God loves you and the people of this place love you. And he could tell by the broad grin on her face, he could tell that that blessing had landed. And she goes back and she sits down. And as soon as she sits down, another woman stands up, Jane, and goes, I want a blessing too. And before he knew it, she had run forward and had planted her face in the folds of his robe. And so now he's blessing her. And you can see how this story goes, because then one and another and another, and he said the whole thing, like everyone was saying, wait, I want a blessing. What about me? And then at the end, there was a student, an assistant, a 24-year-old student that was there learning. And, and, and John says, what about me? Come on down, John. And he comes down and he says, when he's writing later, he said this, this kid was a football player. He's a big guy. And I remember putting my hands on his shoulders and looking at John and saying, you are a beloved child of God. And whatever it is that you're facing now, whatever it is that you go through, I want you to remember, John, that you are loved with an everlasting love. And he said, this big kid like tears just streaming down his face. And he looked at Henry and said, thank you, Henry. Thank you. I needed that so very much. So the question is, What about me? What about you? See, it doesn't matter how accomplished you are, how wise you are in the ways of scripture, how experienced you are, how much you've done. It doesn't even matter how self-reliant you are. There is not a one of us within the sound of my voice who doesn't need to be reminded every now and then that you are the beloved, that you're the apple of his eye, that God is not finished with you, that God has something in store for you. So if I could, if I could, I would grab every one of you by the show, okay? I probably wouldn't grab you by, I would, I would gently and with permission come to you and, and, and, and, and say, you're the beloved. I don't even know your story with God, but you're the apple of his eye. I if I could, I'd do that with every person. I can't. But here's what I can do. Remember, we're gonna listen and then we're gonna come forward. And then the pastors of this church would like to bless you. Now again, I know it's gonna be too much, too deep, too much for some people, but I think a bunch of us need to be reminded of some things. And the pastors here would like to bless you. And then don't be surprised if they like tell you to start blessing the people around you. It's time for us to thank each other and to thank God. I hope your weak is full of that. But let's not wait, shall we? Let's do this together. And may it begin now.